TCM Schedule for Saturday, April 27, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Best of the Essentials

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. In primetime throughout April:

TCM looks back at some of our guests and films from The Essentials, the series with our hosts and special guests introducing and discussing movies considered to be must-see viewing for cinema enthusiasts. The series, which began in 2001, has covered some of the finest movies ever made. Each Saturday in April, we'll show a double feature of The Essentials, with presenters as shown below.

. . .

Norma Rae (1979) earned Sally Field an Oscar for her gritty portrayal of a young factory worker who becomes involved in labor union struggles. Based on a true story, the movie costars Beau Bridges and was directed by Martin Ritt. Field herself presents with host Robert Osborne.

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is a "mockumentary," a phrase coined by director Rob Reiner to describe this send-up of rock band documentaries. The movie was largely improvised by its cast, which includes Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. It has become a much-loved cult favorite. Actress Drew Barrymore presents with host Robert Osborne.

. . .


by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)
A young man about to be married discovers the two aunts who raised him have been poisoning lonely old men.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey
BW-118 mins, CC,

On stage, Boris Karloff played the monstrous Jonathan Brewster, Raymond Massey's film character, who, in eerie-looking screen makeup, resembled Karloff, which was a running gag throughout the picture. Karloff eagerly wanted to do this film, but he was kept under contract by the Broadway play producers and was not allowed to do the picture, to his immense displeasure.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: BARNYARD BABIES (1935)
Dir: Hugh Harman
BW-10 mins, CC,


8:11 AM -- THE GREENER HILLS (1939)
This short film focuses on an incurable optimist who is always giving up on his job to try something new.
Dir: Sammy Lee
Cast: Emmett Vogan, Matt McHugh, Ronnie Cosby
BW-11 mins,


8:22 AM -- SPEED WEEK (1957)
This short film chronicles the automobile races staged as part of Speed Week, held annually in Nassau, Bahamas.
Dir: Howard Winner
Cast: André Baruch, Alfonso de Portago, Masten Gregory
BW-8 mins,

This is one of several short subjects, already in the can, and slated for release by RKO Radio Pictures as part of their Sportscopes 1956-1957 season, but which received no theatrical distribution at the time, as a result of the demise of RKO. In 1994, they became part of the TCM library and, for the past 20+ years, finally saw the light of day through occasional airings on cable television.


8:31 AM -- THE PAINTED DESERT (1938)
A cowboy and a bandit face off over possession of a valuable mine.
Dir: David Howard
Cast: George O'Brien, Laraine Johnson, Ray Whitley
BW-59 mins, CC,

Includes a considerable amount of archive footage lifted out of, and not replaced back into, The Painted Desert (1931).


9:30 AM -- FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE: THE DEATH MIST (1940)
Episode ten of the Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe serial.
Dir: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor
Cast: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton
BW-19 mins, CC,

King Features Syndicate released the 3 Flash Gordon serials as well as "Buck Rogers," "Red Barry", "Ace Drummond" and other comic strip cliffhangers to US TV in 1951. Because the television show Flash Gordon (1954), starring Steve Holland as Flash, was in syndication in late 1953, the three Universal Pictures' Flash Gordon theatrical serials were retitled for TV broadcast. Flash Gordon (1936) became "Space Soldiers", Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) became "Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars", and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) became "Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe". To this day both the 3 original "Flash Gordon" serial titles and the 3 "Space Soldiers" titles are used.


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT CLUB (1937)
'Popito' and 'Olivita' are a dance team, performing at Wimpy's Cafe. Bluto is jealous, and heckles and otherwise disrupts the act.
Dir: Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky (uncredited)
Cast: Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
BW-8 mins, CC,

A large selection of Thimble Theatre characters have blink and you'll miss it cameos in this cartoon: Cole Oyl, Olive Oyl's Dad makes a very rare appearance, he can be seen poking his head out of the bottom left window after Bluto leaves the apartment building. In the window to the right of Cole is Nana Oyl, Olive's mother and directly above the door appears to be Ham Gravey, Olive's original boyfriend. The last cameo is Popeye's driver, Oscar, a friend of Popeye from the comics.


10:09 AM -- TORCHY RUNS FOR MAYOR (1939)
After digging up the dirt on local politicians, a newswoman decides to run for office.
Dir: Ray McCarey
Cast: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy
BW-60 mins, CC,

The eighth of nine "Torchy Blane" films from Warner Brothers made from 1937-39.


11:30 AM -- IT'S IN THE STARS (1938)
In this musical short, a fraternity and sorority independently decide to stop dating one another in order to focus on studying and graduation.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Johnny Downs, Roger Converse, Eleanor Lynn
BW-19 mins,


12:00 PM -- THINGS TO COME (1936)
Two generations of philosophers try to bring an end to war.
Dir: William Cameron Menzies
Cast: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson
BW-97 mins, CC,

Released internationally in early to mid 1936, the movie opens at Christmas time, December 1940, which is when what turns out to be World War II begins in the story. Considering the fact that they were already dealing with a period of time over four years in the future, the filmmakers came pretty close to what turned out to be the real thing: U.K. declared war on Germany in September 1939, and the worst of the German bombing of London, a.k.a. the Blitz, occurred in 1940.


1:45 PM -- THE STRANGER (1946)
A small-town schoolteacher suspects her new husband may be an escaped Nazi war criminal.
Dir: Orson Welles
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Victor Trivas

Though not as well remembered as some of Orson Welles' more original projects, this was the only film directed by Welles to show a profit in its original release.


3:30 PM -- THE CAINE MUTINY (1954)
Naval officers begin to suspect their captain of insanity.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson
C-125 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Humphrey Bogart, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Tom Tully, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Stanley Roberts, Best Sound, Recording -- John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD), Best Film Editing -- William A. Lyon and Henry Batista, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner, and Best Picture

The film opens with the epigraph that states that there has never been a mutiny in the United States Navy. The Navy insisted on this in exchange for the production's use of Pearl Harbor, planes, aircraft carriers, destroyers, combat boats and the port in San Francisco. In fact, this was the only film made with the complete cooperation of the Navy, for which it didn't want credit, only the opening disclaimer. The agreement was the result of heavy pre-production cajoling between the producers and the Navy. At first the Navy was cool to the idea of lending support to the film. Rear Adm. Robert Hickey, Information Chief of the Navy, wrote to the producers, "I believe your production would plant in the minds of millions the idea that life in the Navy is akin to confinement in a psychiatric institution." The Navy suggested several changes to the script, including a change of title to "The Caine Incident". In the end, the Navy's suggested changes were kept to a minimum, and the final script was approved for shooting.


5:45 PM -- GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957)
Dramatization of the legendary battle between Wyatt Earp and the Clanton Gang.
Dir: John Sturges
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
C-123 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- George Dutton (Paramount SSD), and Best Film Editing -- Warren Low

Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster had worked together in I Walk Alone (1947), and often saw each other at various Hollywood functions. But, as Douglas recounted in his autobiography, "The Ragman's Son", they didn't become friends until this movie, which lead to some pretty loose-and-easy moments on the set. For instance, they couldn't focus during a scene in which an unarmed Lancaster is surrounded by several men in a saloon, only to be rescued by Douglas, who steals another man's gun and tosses it to Lancaster. "We go out on the porch", Douglas wrote, "and Burt says to me, 'Thanks, Doc'. I was supposed to say, 'Forget it.' When I came to 'Forget it', the ridiculousness of the scene, our great bravery, our machismo, made us howl. We did the scene over and over. It just made us laugh harder." They were finally laughing so much, an angry John Sturges had to send them home for the day.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: BEST OF THE ESSENTIALS



8:00 PM -- CAT PEOPLE (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph
BW-73 mins, CC,

The horror movie technique of slowly building tension to a jarring shock which turns out to be something completely harmless and benign became known as a "Lewton bus" after a famous scene in this movie created by producer Val Lewton.


9:30 PM -- 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Classic sci-fi epic about a mysterious monolith that seems to play a key role in human evolution.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
C-149 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects -- Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick was not present at the awards ceremony. Presenters Diahann Carroll and Burt Lancaster accepted the award on his behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Stanley Kubrick, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Anthony Masters, Harry Lange and Ernest Archer

According to Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick wanted to get an insurance policy from Lloyds of London to protect himself against losses in the event that extraterrestrial intelligence were discovered before the movie was released. Lloyds refused. Carl Sagan commented, "In the mid-1960s, there was no search being performed for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the chances of accidentally stumbling on extraterrestrial intelligence in a few years' period was extremely small. Lloyds of London missed a good bet."


12:45 AM -- M (1951)
When the police hunt for a child killer cramps their style, the criminal underworld tries to track him down.
Dir: Joseph Losey
Cast: David Wayne, Howard Da Silva, Luther Adler
BW-88 mins,

Before signing Joseph Losey as director, producer Seymour Nebenzal approached fellow German expatriate Douglas Sirk and offered him the job. Sirk said he would do the film only if he could scrap the original story and write a new one about a psychopathic murderer of children. When Nebenzal approached Losey, he too wanted to scrap the original story and do a new one about a child-murderer, and Nebenzal told him that the Production Code Administration (PCA) had agreed to allow him to make the film only if the original story and script were kept. The PCA had approved "M" as a remake of an acknowledged classic, but if the story were changed, their approval would be withdrawn.


2:30 AM -- CROSSING DELANCEY (1988)
An aging woman hires a matchmaker to find her independent granddaughter a man.
Dir: Joan Micklin Silver
Cast: Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbe (Jeroen KrabbT)
C-97 mins, CC,

In the scene where Isabelle and Bubbie are sitting on a park bench waiting to meet the wedding broker, we get a brief look at a bag beside Bubbie on the ground to her right. The white bag has "Humphrey / Muskie" written on it. They were the Democratic ticket for 1968, twenty years before this movie was released.


4:15 AM -- COUSIN, COUSINE (1975)
The friendship between distant cousins makes their spouses jealous.
Dir: Jean-Charles Tacchella
Cast: Marie-Christine Barrault, Victor Lanoux, Marie-France Pisier
C-96 mins,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marie-Christine Barrault, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Jean-Charles Tacchella (screenplay/story) and Danièle Thompson (adaptation), and Best Foreign Language Film -- •France

Was a surprise box office hit in America, becoming the most popular French film in the US since A Man and a Woman.

[CBHagman]

1. As always, the notes are sensational, though...

...I am embarrassed to report that although I have seen Crossing Delancey any number of times, I don't remember the Humphrey-Muskie bag.

But speaking of politics and Crossing Delancey, Peter Riegert (Sam Posner, the pickle man) famously worked for Bella Abzug back in the day.

http://www.playbill.com/article/peter-riegert-brings-mamets-neighborhood-to-life-com-101055

[Staph]

2. I don't think that I have seen Crossing Delancey in this century,

So I definitely don't remember the Humphrey/Muskie bag.

But I do remember the film. It was one of the first times I realized that love didn't need to be that all-encompassing, lightening bolt, romantic till the end of time kind of love. Love could start as friendship and companionship and small things.